Sanders Third At All-American Derby

Published: August 1, 1999 12:00AM

Everything happened exactly the way it was supposed to -- until the final race of the 62nd All-American Soap Box Derby.

Wayne-Holmes derby representative A.J. Sanders found himself in exactly the same situation he was in a year ago. Last year, the Doylestown resident came out of nowhere to make it to the stock division championship where he came up just short, finishing second.

This time, Sanders was lying back in his sleek, purple car with blue flames in the masters division race, waiting for the gate to drop on his second and probably final chance at a world championship.

He had a disadvantage, however. It was called lane one, the lane that failed to produce a champion in any of the three divisions.

Sanders finished in third place, something that only he has bettered when it comes to Wayne-Holmes representatives.

The title stayed in Ohio as Allan Endres of Barberton cruised to the championship in 28.60 seconds. Ashley Brand of Omaha, Neb., finished second.

This was Sanders' first year racing in the master class. After racing so successfully last year, the 13-year-old decided to skip the next division and go straight to the most advanced stage of derby racing.

Sanders had no trouble adjusting to the new level, as he breezed through the first three rounds, winning twice in lane one and once in lane three.

However, running in what proved to be the slow lane all day long caught up with him.

Sanders made it to the championship by defeating Steven Nasielski of Westminster, Md., and Arin Ratzlaff of Kansas City, Mo. In that race, Sanders ran his best time of the day, at 28.65.

Kasey Walton of Wooster and Jeff Himes of Doylestown both just missed out in moving past the first round in the super stock and stock divisions respectively.

Walton said it was a combination of the heat, which stayed in the high 90s all day long, and bad driving that did him in.

"I drove terrible," the 14-year-old said. "I just drove real terrible. I also have two real slow wheels."

Walton said he didn't have any trouble during trial runs, and he didn't know why he drove badly when all the chips were down.

"I just drove straight down in the trial runs," he said. "I didn't try then. I didn't want to wreck the car."

Despite the early exit, Walton said he is ready to jump back in the driver's seat, in the masters division.

Alisha Ebner of Salem, Ore., won the super stock division, followed by Jennifer Bond of Morganton, N.C., and Loren Morrison of Indianapolis, Ind.

Jeff Himes had a whirlwind first year in Soap Box Derby racing. Unfortunately, it ended with the 10-year-old coming up just short as he finished about a quarter of a car length behind Kevin Seiler of Akron.

"It's pretty good to make it all the way here in the first year," said Himes' mother, Candy Himes. "We're pretty proud of him."